Securely providing financial information to family members

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surprising

Recycles dryer sheets
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I am putting together a document listing all of our financial accounts details for our daughters in the event something happens to us. I do not want to list passwords or any sensitive information. Any suggestions on how to do this safely and securely?
 
I've wondered a bit about this myself, so will follow along.

How computer literate is everyone involved ?
What is besides passwords "any sensitive information" ?


Without computer being necessary

I could imagine 2 sheets of paper or lists:
One contains Bank name, account number, account holder name AND ID #

Second sheet contains ID # and password

You give her the 1st sheet. You keep the second sheet at you place (tell where it's located) example in file drawer or under floor board or bank safety deposit box
 
I have such a document in my filing cabinet and my niece/executor knows where it is and what it looks like. I store it in a 3-ring binder with all will, medical and financial power of attorney docs, etc.

I do not include any usernames and passwords in the document or provide those to her in any way. At all. I do provide her with the name of the financial institution, the account number and the phone number of customer service for the financial institution. Upon my death, she can do the necessary steps using that information.
 
Since I don’t trust the electronic world with my confidential life story:
I am thinking of writing all important accounts, names, and passwords in a notebook with detailed thoughts to help beneficiary continue onafter My/DW’s passing.
 
I have ours on s sheet of paper, in "the Notebook" which has all of our important papers for the kids (will, advanced directive, etc). It is kept in our safe. Kids know where it is and where we keep the combination and keys.
 
I have a Word document that explains everything financial. It's mainly for DW after I'm gone or incapacitated. But it's also intended for the kids after we're both gone. The document contains no account numbers or login credentials, but explains where everything is and how it works.

The document also references our password manager program. The master password is only known by DW and myself. But there is a single printed copy in a secure location along with our other important documents. The location is known by our two adult children.

I was inspired to write the Word document after reading a similar thread on this forum about 10 years ago. FWIW, it covers: bills, income, insurance, cars, bank accounts, credit cards, passwords, credit freeze, investment accounts, investment strategy, withdrawal plan, taxes, wills, beneficiaries, ongoing subscriptions, social media legacy info, and a section dedicated to DMIL's finances.
 
I have it on a flash drive that is stored in my gun safe. DW and DS have the safe combination. Other docs like real estate and birth certificates are kept there too. Oh, and some guns. :)
 
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I use a password manager (Bitwarden) that has an "emergency access" feature perfect for these kinds of scenarios. You can upload any sorts of documents you want (e.g. Word doc with all your financial account details; digital copy of your will; photos/videos of things; etc.) and then give whomever you want access to all your stuff in the event something happens to you. When the time comes, they log into Bitwarden and request access to your account, which triggers an email to you. If you respond (essentially saying "I'm fine, no emergency here"), they are denied access. But it you don't respond within a certain number of days (say, 7 days, but the precise number is up to you), then they are granted full access to your account, including all your passwords and docs that you uploaded. It's a very elegant solution to this extremely common problem.

Check it out here: Bitwarden - Emergency Access
 
We use LastPass. Just have to share our master password with daughters. Which they store in their LastPass.
 
For all of us who are thinking ahead and have a plan to share documents and locations you don't know the gift you are giving your family. We lost a friend suddenly at 60 and his widow called my wife to ask "does Michael know how to find out if my husband has life insurance?"

Write stuff down and share it with your family. Them putting it all together after you're dead shouldn't be a treasure hunt.
 
I'll share my password system again, as it also can be used for cases like this where you want to let someone else know your password, but still keep it unusable for anyone who gets that info.

I have a list of logins and passwords on paper in plain view, and on the computer. But, they aren't the real passwords. They are just a small portion of the password. They are added to two 'keywords' that I have memorized (easy, as I use them often). For example, say you chose the 'keywords' "APPLE123", and "zebra789" (but don't use actual words, those are weaker). The written password for my local bank is "L$B", so the actual password is APPLE123L$Bzebra789".

All you need to do is to share those keywords with them ahead of time, and don't write them down where you keep your passwords. Limit the keywords to alpha-numeric, and add any special character requirements to the unique written portion, that assures your keywords will be accepted at all systems (which might reject certain special chars).
 
Sojourner said:
...If you respond (essentially saying "I'm fine, no emergency here"), they are denied access. But it you don't respond within a certain number of days (say, 7 days, but the precise number is up to you), then they are granted full access to your account, including all your passwords and docs that you uploaded. It's a very elegant solution to this extremely common problem.
...
Click to expand...
And if the bad guys crack your email, and intercept that one so you don't see it? No thanks!
 
Among the paperwork in the drawer where all the important docs are is a printout of a spreadsheet with all the accounts and their numbers, and on this printout is the password to my computer and the name of the file on which I keep the login credentials. Not as good as other options listed here; online credentials obviously change often.
 
Kings over Queens said:
For all of us who are thinking ahead and have a plan to share documents and locations you don't know the gift you are giving your family. We lost a friend suddenly at 60 and his widow called my wife to ask "does Michael know how to find out if my husband has life insurance?"

Write stuff down and share it with your family. Them putting it all together after you're dead shouldn't be a treasure hunt.
Click to expand...
Good advice.

I experienced this when my Dad died many many years ago, had to go through is desk drawers and file cabinet looking for anything that was $$ related. Worse was insurance companies as he kept old papers that were no longer valid (or company lied).

Just getting over the inertia of doing it is my issue.
 
Sojourner said:
I use a password manager (Bitwarden) that has an "emergency access" feature perfect for these kinds of scenarios. You can upload any sorts of documents you want (e.g. Word doc with all your financial account details; digital copy of your will; photos/videos of things; etc.) and then give whomever you want access to all your stuff in the event something happens to you. When the time comes, they log into Bitwarden and request access to your account, which triggers an email to you. If you respond (essentially saying "I'm fine, no emergency here"), they are denied access. But it you don't respond within a certain number of days (say, 7 days, but the precise number is up to you), then they are granted full access to your account, including all your passwords and docs that you uploaded. It's a very elegant solution to this extremely common problem.

Check it out here: Bitwarden - Emergency Access
Click to expand...
I didn't know about this. Pretty cool.

I use Roboform which is similar, but doesn't have this feature. Free Roboform has a text area you can document a bunch of stuff. I have may master password in the physical safe in a sealed envelope.

Above all, don't put anything sensitive anywhere on the net that's not encrypted. Period. Not email for sure. Password protected word or excel is worthless, easy to crack. Texting is a little safer, but not much.
 
I will point out if people have login credentials unencrypted in a safe, it's possible a break-in will steal the safe, or pry it open, or beat you until you open it.
 
ERD50 said:
I'll share my password system again, as it also can be used for cases like this where you want to let someone else know your password, but still keep it unusable for anyone who gets that info.

I have a list of logins and passwords on paper in plain view, and on the computer. But, they aren't the real passwords. They are just a small portion of the password. They are added to two 'keywords' that I have memorized (easy, as I use them often). For example, say you chose the 'keywords' "APPLE123", and "zebra789" (but don't use actual words, those are weaker). The written password for my local bank is "L$B", so the actual password is APPLE123L$Bzebra789".

All you need to do is to share those keywords with them ahead of time, and don't write them down where you keep your passwords. Limit the keywords to alpha-numeric, and add any special character requirements to the unique written portion, that assures your keywords will be accepted at all systems (which might reject certain special chars).
Click to expand...
I do like the portability of this, but also wonder does this introduce a weakness, since the passwords all share the same beginning and end value. Especially if this is used on weak websites, including ones that don't even encrypt passwords. I've had the odd weak website email me, my forgotten password, something that should not be possible!

I suppose if the written password is long, then it solves the commonality issue, or perhaps this is solved by some banks encryption algorithm of adding a salt prior to encryption.
 
MuirWannabe said:
We use LastPass. Just have to share our master password with daughters. Which they store in their LastPass.
Click to expand...
I would not do this. I love my kids, but I don't trust them not to do something accidentally that makes my super secret pw exposed. I have my master pw in a safe in a sealed envelope. I'll know pretty much immediately if that pw gets exposed. And if it were to be exposed you still need 2 factor authentication to get to the data.
 
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Sunset said:
I will point out if people have login credentials unencrypted in a safe, it's possible a break-in will steal the safe, or pry it open, or beat you until you open it.
Click to expand...

Come on Sir. No one is going to beat you to get you pw keeper login credentials. Scour the internet, never ever happened. 1000x more likely to grab your debit card and take you to the ATM.
 
Healthy Lifestyle said:
Since I don’t trust the electronic world with my confidential life story:
I am thinking of writing all important accounts, names, and passwords in a notebook with detailed thoughts to help beneficiary continue onafter My/DW’s passing.
Click to expand...

  • Encrypted files are pretty much impossible to crack. Your info is as safe in a well known program like Bitwarden as your money is in the bank.
  • Writing all your info down in one place makes you very vulnerable.
  • Not on my computer makes keeping the data up to date a nearly impossible challenge.
 
In the safe, a paper with all account numbers. It also includes my phone’s pin number and master password, allowing designated family members to access those accounts even with 2 factor. The paper also lists all my subscriptions and autopay accounts.

Since I use a password manager, I gave them emergency access to it via an option in the password manager. I use to keep a text file with passwords but I found it gradually went out of sync with the password manager.
 
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